Chapter 3: The Party

Two months into the school year and Rene was doing very well, she was keeping up with her classes, maintaining a 3.85 GPA, and cultivating new friends she met from class. Sharon was true to her word and focused all of her time and energy into school, attaining a 3.5 GPA.

With the effort the two put towards home work and studying there was little time for a social life. Most of the time that was okay but as the newness of class began to wane, their commitment did as well, and as the tenth week of school year ended they both decided to accept an invitation to a party in another dorm.

At first Sharon was not going to go to the party, which was a huge relief to Rene. She felt intimidated, by the other students who were more city and street smart than she. She also felt that people would perceive her as a hick as she haled from a rural area, and her clothing and style as such.

But as the week progressed there was a shift in Sharon’s decision when she began to weigh the pros and cons of attending. On one side there was the social interaction, which was a major part of the college experience, while on the con side they were doing very well with keeping up with school work that she didn’t want to let up, not even just a little. It finally came down to a balance between maintaining the current workload and grades while staving off the burn out that would surely come. Sharon decided that the old proverb that all work and no play make jack a dull boy was something to follow and declared at dinner on Friday that they were attending.

Grudgingly, Rene accepted the fate that lay before her as she agreed to accompany Sharon to the party, once Sharon has made up her mind there was no changing it.

Saturday morning they both got up early and began a six hour study and homework marathon, a requirement by Rene, before the went to the party. Sharon grumbled a little bit as she enjoyed sleeping in on the weekends, but she had an inkling of an idea that when she’d wake up on Sunday it would be well after noon, heck she didn’t think she would be back to the dorm until after sunrise, with any luck. Rene had an inkling as well, that she would have to keep a sharp eye on Sharon because she would be jumping off the wagon and kicking up her heals, so to speak.

The party began at 6pm, and not wanting to be early for their first party, agreed that 7pm would be the best time to arrive.

When they got to the party they were greeted by campus security, since the party was on campus drinking was prohibited and someone, probably the RA, called them to break up the party.

Not wanting to be associated with drinking, though that was one of the things that Sharon was looking forward to, they did the prudent thing and got the heck out of there. As they reached the elevator an older student, most likely an upperclassman joined them. He was of medium height with short dark hair and a big smile. While waiting for the elevator to pick them up he struck up a conversation, “So, bummer about the cops busting the party!”

“Yeah. I was looking forward to letting loose” replied a downtrodden Sharon.

“Oh, by the way, Jared, Jared Charstinian.”

“Well hello Jared, I’m Sharon Marburry and this is my roommate Rene Hewitt.”

“Ladies, a pleasure to meet you. Listen, if you’re interested, the party moved off campus” he said matter-of-factly.

“Really? Where?” asked Sharon.

“You can follow me, if you’d like. It’s just down the street.”

Whispering into Sharon’s ear Rene said “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

Replying back with a flip of the hand Sharon said, “Lead on kind sir.”

“Sharon, I think this is a bad idea”, still in a whisper but with more emphasis.

Todd looked at Rene and said, “Alright, I get it, you don’t know me, you probably don’t trust me. That’s okay, I wouldn’t trust me either. So, how can we get past this?”

Furrowing her brow Sharon turned to Rene and asked, “Well, I don’t know? What do you think?.”

Sarcastically Rene responded, “How about a month in the same class.”

Rolling her eyes she responded, “Oh stop it Rene.”

Crossing her arms Rene bellowed, “Fine!”

“So, Jared”, she said softly as she took his arm in hers, “if I may be so bold as to require your personal protection for this evening in return for my accepting your invitation to the off campus party.”

Tugging on her other arm Rene pleaded, “Sharon!”

“Ladies, I will gladly accompany both of you to the party. And Rene, when we get there I will find a suitable replacement for myself as I do intend to watch over the lovely Sharon” he said with a smile and a wink.

“See” said a very happy Sharon, “Jared will provide a knight in shining armor for you as well!”

“Great!” said a disgruntled Rene.

The walk to the party was short, just a block east of the campus, and was in the top apartment of a small duplex. There were a lot of people in the apartment, most appeared to be upper classman standing in the front room talking, and drinking. As they made their way through the crowd Jared asked, “Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’ll take a beer” replied Sharon, while Rene replied “Nothing for me.”

“Great, be right back” and off he disappeared in the crowd of partiers.

Rene grabbed Sharon’s arm and said, “Sharon, what the heck! We don’t know anyone, and I don’t know if I can trust this, Jared person!”

Sharon smiled at Rene and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

“How do you know that? You don’t know him? He could be some kind of, sexual predator or something!”

“I think I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll be okay? What about me! Oh my God! He said he would set me up with a Knight in Shining armor! What about him!”

“I would hold judgment until you met him.”

Stunned, Rene folded her arms and stewed in her discomfort.

A short time later Jared returned carrying two beers and a bottle of water. Following him was a slightly taller person, another upper classman she thought,

To Sharon “So, a beer for you” and turning to Rene he said, “My lady, may I introduce Bruce Foster, Junior at Georgetown University, and Knight in shining armor, a true Lancelot, here to maintain your maidenhood.”

“Well, uhm, okay”

“Don’t mind him, if you want me gone, I’m gone.”

“Well, no, thats fine. I just don’t want you to miss out on the party.”

“What’s there to miss? People are drinking” lifting his glass, “socializing, as I am doing with you, and most likely hooking up, which I have sworn to protect you from.”

“So, you don’t mind missing out on those things?”

“Not at all, though since this is my place you might need to tag along with me, if there is a need for me to, ah, take care of things.”

“What kind of things?” she asked skeptically.

With a node and a smile Bruce leaned into Rene and said softly, “Like the things inebriated people do.”

Rene laughed, she was well aware of what the devils elixir can do to people seeing it first hand, “That’s fine by me. And I will stay with you and help you with those other types of things.”

For the next two hours Bruce kept his word and stayed with her, as well as Rene staying with him, as if she had any choice I the matter. They talked about a great many things, notably where they come from and what their aspirations were. Bruce’s background was far more adventurous than Rene’s but considerably less than Sharon’s. He is from Philadelphia, and was mostly a home body as they only traveled while on vacation, and never out of the country, something about his Father not trusting any country other than his own. His family was financially well off, though not wealthy, his Father is a Lawyer and his Mother spends her time with charitable and political causes, sometimes the line between the two are so blurred that you can’t see the difference between the two.

What she found most interesting were the reasons Bruce choose to attend Georgetown. His top reason was it was away from home, and he desperately wanted to get away from his parents and be on his own. Second was his Uncle, his Mom’s sister husband, was a major benefactor to the University and had solicited a full scholarship for him, it wasn’t that his family couldn’t afford the cost of sending him to Georgetown but more of a show by his uncle that he had the connections to get him the scholarship. And lastly, and in some respect a morose reason for choosing Georgetown, was after he was presented the full scholarship yet before he choose Georgetown his Uncle had died suddenly. His Aunt reeling from the loss of her Husband couldn’t live in their home but couldn’t sell it so another incentive, that closed the deal for him, was the use of the home for as long as he wanted.

A side effect of spending the last couple of hours with Bruce was that she got know him. He wasn’t the sex fiend, self-centered, drug taking, upper clansman! He was an attentive host, a family oriented guy, and caring. He wasn’t at all like some of the others of the male community, guys can be so self-centered at times. Well, not all of them.

She also found that she was beginning to like him.

It was about this time that she thought about her roommate Sharon, and being that she hadn’t seen her in quite some time she became a little concerned.

She placed her hand on Bruce’s arm and asked, “Have you seen my friend Sharon?”

He looked around the room and said, “She doesn’t seem to be in here. Come on, we’ll check the rest of the house.”

And off they went searching for Sharon. Working from front to back they cleared the main rooms on the floor, and went to the basement, though Bruce was sure that no one would go down there they went anyway. Bruce was of course correct, the basement was dark cold and damp, not a place where Sharon would go.

They went outside to the back yard, and not seeing anyone, walked to the front of the house and still no Sharon. Rene was getting a little nervous and it carried in her voice as she asked, “So what now? Do you know where Jared lives? Heck, I don’t even know if she is with Jared!”

Rubbing his head, Bruce slowly looked up and down the block, clearly pissed off at the situation that Jared had put him in. Coming up with a plan “Okay, let’s go back inside and I’ll call his cell, see if Sharon is with him and where he is, so I can kick his ass.”

If Rene wasn’t so worried she would have laughed.

They walked back into the house, Bruce heading to the phone while Rene did another walk through hoping that they might have missed them on the first pass, bit no such luck.

Bruce walked up holding a phone to his ear and said, “No answer on his cell, so I called one of my friends that lives in the same the dorm as Jared, he’s on his way to Jared’s to see if he’s there.”